“It’s just a cat.”
I’ve heard that so many times, and if you’re a cat lover, you probably have too.
It’s an insinuation that cats are throwaway animals, fungible pets who can be replaced by others of their species because, some people claim, they don’t express themselves as individuals, never really warm to humans in the first place, and besides, it’s not like they have emotions.
Countering those persistent myths is one of the reasons I write this blog. I still didn’t have a full appreciation for how singular and smart cats can be until I brought Buddy home. I never fathomed the depth of his emotions, the strength of his convictions or his willingness to make his opinions known about everything.
In some ways, I’m still shocked at how much he communicates and how well we understand each other.
However, one of my biggest fears is not doing right by him, especially missing signs of declining health as he gets older.
That’s the subject of a column today in the New York Times, in which science write Emily Anthes recalls the subtle signs that her cat, Olive, was sick, and the veterinarian’s assessment that she wasn’t just ill, she was on death’s door.
Anthes points out that, to this day, veterinary training uses canines as the default, and treatments for cats are often just adapted from treatments for dogs, even if there’s no data suggesting those methods actually work for feline patients.
“My anatomy book was ‘Anatomy of the Dog,’” Maggie Placer, veterinary science programs manager at EveryCat Health Foundation, told the Times. “We had PowerPoints and supplements for the cats.”
The differences go beyond body plan, organs and behavior: drugs that work for dogs can be ineffective or dangerous for cats. Treatments otherwise regarded as effective in other animals could be harmful to felines too.
“It’s not reasonable to assume that everything that works in a dog will work in a cat,” Bruce Kornreich, director of the Cornell Feline Health Center, told Anthes. “There’s a lot that we still need to learn.”
The situation with feline veterinary science mirrors the gap in behavioral studies between cats and dogs.
Over the past decade, research teams in countries like the US and Japan have made efforts to close the gap by recognizing that studies must be crafted to feline points of view, and that laboratories are not suitable places for studying the behavior of such notoriously territorial animals. Cats behave differently outside of their environments, rendering data useless if it’s captured in settings where kitties are stressed, unsure of themselves or even just miffed that they’re not at home enjoying a nap.
There are unique challenges when it comes to studying effective veterinary treatments in cats as well. Primary among them is feline stoicism, an evolutionary adaptation.
Simply put, cats will do everything they can to mask injury and sickness because they don’t want to become prey. Unfortunately that means by the time a cat cannot conceal an ailment anymore, the disease or injury has progressed. Even if a cat has lived indoors her entire life, the directive to disguise her pain is hardcoded into her DNA.
Anthes’ cat, Olive, didn’t make it. But her litter mate is chugging along, and to help advance the cause of understanding cat health, Anthes submitted both cats’ fur clippings to geneticist Dr. Elinor Karlsson’s Darwin’s Cats, a “non-profit community science project” that uses DNA submitted by cat owners to better understand our furry friends and unlock the secrets of their health and behavior.
Let’s hope that such projects spark a renaissance in studying cat health, like they have with research into feline behavior, so we can do right by our little buddies.
Pain In The Bud 
I’ve read similar findings regarding women. Treating women for certain ailments and diseases is different than for men. Our makeup is different yet science still runs tests on men and assume they will work on women.
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In recent years it’s become impolitic to acknowledge physical differences between genders, and I wonder how much that has contributed to the problem as well. Both of our infantile political parties have used their power to withhold or memory hole studies that go against their ideological views, which has a further chilling effect on study selection in the first place.
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Great writing as always on such a big subject given the huge feline prescence in our world. I honestly did not realise that ‘canine’ is the standard for this area. I put limitless funds behind trying to keep my precious Bets alive as I have with many of my furry overlords and the balance between my wishes and prayers and their wellbeing is tricky, relying always on Vets advice. Great to see that there are now studies based on real world felines not laboratory standards. Hopefully this will benefit many felines as we go forward.
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It’s a good reason to look into feline-only vet practices. If anyone knows how to treat cats, a practice that specializes in them seems like a solid choice, all other things being equal.
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Cats can tell time, and truly they can also adjust for Daylight Savings. I had two who could do that, and would get me up at 4 am (which was my then-go-to morning time) without fail. One morning my little black manx was banging on my bedroom door frantically, I looked at the clock, staggered over to the door and flung it open. “WHAT” I said. He looked at me, and then I swear to god he looked at the clock and nearly passed out from embarrassment. Then he went down the stairs so fast, bump bump bumpbump…next morning, 4 AM. right on time.
My (now retired) vet, Dr. Low, was on the same side of the board as I was, concerning cats. We would discuss treatments that might work, or would not work at all, and I trusted him totally. He saw me through one dog and about 15 cats before he retired.
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Hmm. Cats have no emotions. Right. 2 nights ago my cat TT escaped to garden. Stupid me forgot to lock door. My feral bit him on his right paw and scurried back. Bought him to vet right away because of bite and losing weight very slowly. Has start of kidney disease. He might be 13. You know how it goes. You cannot determine exact age of street cats. Anyway, ever since he came home from vet he has not left my side. Sleeps near my feet. On my side, etc. He hates being picked up and now does not mind.
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Yeah it’s very obvious cats have emotions, besides the fact that it’s been proven with behavioral studies and scans showing oxytocin levels spiking during interaction with their caretakers.
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As a former designer of human medical school curricula, I can attest that a similar, often unrecognized, imbalance exists. One doesn’t have to favor DEI or wokeness to observe that the very young and very old, ethnic minorities, and women are studied as exceptions to the default adult majority male. Cats deserve to have research and practice focused on them. Amanda
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I have noticed more criticisms of studies that don’t include wide demographics, and it seems demographic balance is becoming the norm now, which is good. Culture war nonsense aside, it’s just bad science if your study is one ethnic group, one age cohort, one gender..
Unless it’s something like a study into sickle cell, which only effects particular groups of people.
As for cats getting treatment, the NYT column did raise the issue of what a pain in the ass it is to bring cats to the vet, so people tend not to bring their cats as much as they bring dogs.
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This is why I appreciate your blog, and why I love the relationship you have developed with Little Bud (and, through you, all of us have).
Cats are such special animals. I don’t know who came up with the idea that cats are aloof or unemotional, because that has certainly not been the case with any of my cats
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Thank you, Susan! He has such a big personality, it shines through in everything he does. He’s like Gummitch the super kitten from Space-Time for Springers.
When he lays in my lap for scratches, I tell him he has his own website and a lot of people love him. He may not know exactly what it means, but he likes hearing about it because he always purrs more intensely.
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He knows.
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One day I really am gonna get a knock at the door from a UPS guy delivering 20 cases of turkey that I didn’t order…
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When I have to go to a Post (instead of in the feed) to “Like” a comment, the “Like” doesn’t seem to take. WordPress gremlins.
Just wanted you to know I liked your comments.
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Oh, yes, P.S. I knew nothing about how to care for an elderly and then dying cat. I had to learn it all “on the job,” so to speak.
I’m still heartbroken over the mistakes I made, but I am grateful for the lesson that I got.
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We’ve all been there.
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Fascinating, as ever, thank you for sharing. “Cats will do everything they can to mask injury and sickness because they don’t want to become prey” is an important reminder that domestic cats are simply wild animals that have chosen to spend time with us, but are still hard-wired like their wild ancestors.
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Yup. They “domesticated” themselves and unlike with dogs, we never had a reason to breed them for behavioral traits because they were already good at what we needed them to do. But the result is that they retain wild behavior and quirks.
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When I was young, most cats didn’t get regular veterinary care. And a lot of people took them to the Humane Society to be spayed or neutered. (The ones who bothered.) I’ve had several cats who waited until I went to bed to pass on.
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